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Scoring at the end o f th e day
produced several multiple winners ;
nam ely Gen e Brown (400 Prod. , 50 0
GP, Open Cafe) , Steve Schaefer (125 GP
Sing le, 125 GP Twin), and Bob Loos e
(250 GP Twin, Op en GP).
Brown 's showroom stock RD 350
took him to sm ooth, almost effo rtless
wins in each of th e three classes he
en teredo His lap tim es were also the
most co nsisten t ;' aro und 38 sec. all day
lo ng.
Mike Budsch at (first 250 Single.
seco nd 250 Twin ) on a 19 66 Ducati,
and To m Rasp (seco n d 100 G P, fifth
250 Prod. ) were per hap s th e most
imp ressive o f the many new racers in
th is are a. It 11 be in ter estin g to follo w
th e pro gress of these two in the fut ure .
Resul ts in Results Section
•
Sunny Valley IT
By Lynne Diltz
SUNNY VA L LEY , O RE.,J ULY 20
Advertising for Sunny Valley
Speedway's IT tr ac k reads " a day
of grea t en te rtainme nt" and that's
j ust wh at it was July 20 as 155
rider s put o n a sho w an d a hal f fo r a
near-re co rd crowd o f spectators th at
lined the oak tree covered hills ides. It
was action-a-mi nu te as nine to 14 riders
did their th ing in fo ur to five he a ts and
Mains down to "D."
One of th e biggest cro wd p leasers
was re ally th e smallest _.. ti ny James
William s all th e way fro m Kingman,
Arizona . He was only six years old but
tooled aro un d the tr ack on hi s 50c c
Honda like the devi l was af ter him .
Th e pr actices are always fu n , for
spe ctators, anyway. Ran dy Haberman.
lost his grip on th e track ,an d his b ike
lost its ' seat, leavin g Randy bo unci ng on
his an d wondering jus t what went
wron g. An other p uzz led ri der was Bill
Davis. He was sen di ng roo st er ta ils
around turn o ne an d sudden! y lost
power. Bill pulled off an d looked it all
over th en 100 ked b ack and son-of-a-gun,
there lay his wh ole pipe which was
promptly rW1 over by an other bike.
Th ere were five heats of 100s; Kenny
Copeland (Suz) won his heat an d rode
A- M ai n . Kevin Anderson finished
sec on d only to Don Bramble tt, on a
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" The odd couple" - a pair of uni dentified 5 00 Novi ces as th ey trucked
on by ph otograp her J erry Mathe l at Oregon 's White City Oval.
broken shock. Cliff Allen got cro wded
out co ming up the straight an d was
down and o u t fo r qu it e awhi le.
In t he Kids B, Bob Nich laso n h ad a
bum he at and was pl aced in the C which
he wo n and transferred fr om. He roared
off a th ird row st art and worked his way
to sec ond, pushing hard on J oe Diltz
who was holdi ng down first. It was
do wn to t he last lap when Diltz went
wide on a right-hander , Nichlason tried
to slip under and th ey ru b bed wheels.
Dilt z left the track in a cloud of dust,
Nich lason rounded th e com er and
deliberately left th e track to go back
an d check to see th at Diltz was OK. In
Kirk Howard (14) is having fun leading this 125cc heat at Sunny Valley. Or is he biting his lip?
"
32
goi ng back, Nichlason gave up a sure
first an d ano th er transfer to th e A Main
w her e h e u sually trophies .
Sportsmanship? - You better believe it!
Kirk Howard sh ot to first in his 125
heat and st ayed th ere for an A Main
spot on the line with 12 others.
Everyone held their bre ath as those 13
slid into the first turn but all made it
thro ugh except for Randy Jordan. He
was all by hims elf and simply went
down . To ny Sp eck picked up some
weeds in the seco n d lap when he
suddenly took off to the toolies, Would
haz ard a guess that he hit neutral. Rich
Word. Phil Harless and Scott Lancaster
h ad a running battle for spots three,
four, and five, changing places with each
lap .
,
Mickey Rh oades an d Tim Howlen
went d o wn in turn two and Mickey got
an axl e in th e middle of his ba ck. He
was taken to the hospital and no word
was given on his condidtion. Mike Reed
washed a wheel on the Oak Tr ee Corner
and made a pe rfect slide clear into the
pits, missing parked bikes but sending
riders every which way. In the 250 B
Main he went down on a start and took
a bad lick to the helmet from one of a
pa ck who couldn 't miss him.
Th e 250 A Main was somethin' else!
Karl Ulrich lost a chain and sailed off
turn one to greet some spectators (y o u
should have seen them move) and a
three-bike tan gle in Oak Tree Corner
left Clark Taylo r with a wrenched knee.
The restart saw Karl Ulrich overshooting
the same corn er as before and heading
fo r that same group of spe ctators. .
Rich Word (h is second time on a
250 ) and Brian Peterson (very familiar
to a 250) fought all the way to a
stand-up finish . Peterson went all ways
but couldn't quite get around Word. He
started a final ch arge in the sweeper,
came to Word 's side, Word turned it on
and both howled through the last turn
and across the line! It was Rich Word by
less than six inches.
And lest we forget • . . . that class for
all those creaky, old Elderly Gentlemen !
